Micro
One of the pulls (in the push /pull strategy) is that consumers would buy and activate security /DRM hardware if this was the only way to get the valuable content. But that requires the content provider or distributor to invest in the facilities to make it happen. That quagmire is one reason why things slog around until someone makes a move. Apple and IPOD is a good example of a company doing something new and then having the rest of the world follow up quickly once the move proves popular. Banks would love home trusted computing but weren't willing to invest to make it happen. Hardware providers didn't move quickly on hardware security since they viewed it as an additional cost and no competitive advantage.
Legal issues and horror stories is changing some of that thinking. Also the fact that the chip itself is almost free and can just be added in makes the basic distribution a lot easier to do.
But as we have experienced, just because we think it is a good idea, doesn't mean that it won't take 1 to 5 years for it to happen. However experience shows that when its value and profit opportunity is demonstrated, going from 5% to 50% of a market can be a blink of the eye.
From an investment perspective, the simple risk is that Wave doesn't have the staying power, having spent its load on the long development slog and having to be cautious in further investments and even selling costs until revenue kicks in. And as Greg reasonably points out, a particular way to do it can change with new technology, investments and experience. Thus the timing is important so the paradigm doesn't have a chance to change a lot before there is deployment of the current approaches. I once owned a telco compnay with some brilliant optical switching IP - but it took so long for the market to form and it still is forming, that their leading edge design effectively became extinct before it ever got deployed widely. There is some analogy to Embassy 2100 even as its spirit still lives in Trust Zone.
AI
